Colonel

Colonel

Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...

 Henry Allan Roughton May was a member (1882-1921) and Commanding Officer (1912 and 1920) of the Artists Rifles. He was also recipient of the Order of the Bath

Order of the Bath

The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...

, and the Volunteer Decoration

Volunteer Decoration

The Volunteer Officers' Decoration was created by Royal Warrant under command of Queen Victoria on 25 July 1892 to reward 'efficient and capable' officers of the Volunteer Force who had served for twenty years...

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Military career

May joined the Artists' Rifles in 1882, as a private but rose to the rank of Colonel. In 1914, when the call came, he was in command of the corps, which formed then the 28th Battalion London Regiment, and after being in command of troops at the Tower, he went over to France in October, 1914, just after the disastrous retreat from Mons, when General French's army was denuded of officers. General French called on the Artists to replace the heavy casualties, and this, under Colonel May, was done, and done so well that for the greater part of the war period May was occupied in training officers for the Army. He also had other important duties at G.H.Q. in France, but, at the end of 1915, he was gassed and invalided home. On recovering from a severe illness he was appointed to the important post, which he held till the end of the War, of Commandant at Tidworth of the Southern Command School of Instruction for Infantry Officers, where over 14,000 Officers passed through his curriculum. He was succeeded in France by his Second-in-command, Lt. Col. Chatfeild-Clarke, who carried on until the summer of 1917. He was appointed a Military Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1915.